Cities of the Future

[Captain Andy]

"Well, it's nice to meet you Arodom. " said Travis politely as he took a seat on whatever he could find in the storage room.

 

"I'm ready to hear what this is all about. I'm a little curious as to why there's been a change in the time we're leaving."

 

With that, Travis relaxed and begin thinking about how he'd gotten himself into this mess. He wondered why he just hadn't become a teacher or some quiet job.

[Evilsincarnation]

"Yeah, nice to meet you to," replied Arodom.

 

Arodom glanced casually around the room and then looked back to Candiru One.

 

"Why don't you tell us what you want us to do now; I don't like people who keep secrets."

[PurpleXVI]

"I was getting to that," said One, sounding slightly annoyed, and gestured for everyone to take a place around the rather large table that he'd managed to edge into the storage closet, the chairs were made out of boxes and apparently whatever else he had been able to find in the small room, "We're leaving early because while I was waiting for you, there was a lapse in security here. Half the guards were ill one day and I managed to slip into one of the control rooms and make the necessary adjustments."

 

"Now," he continued, took a bulky device out of his pocket, pressed a few buttons on it and put it in the centre of the table, "This, is a map of Silver Rock," the machine projected a 3D picture of the planet a few inches above the table, Candiru One made a few gestures and it zoomed in until it was roughly above the area they were in, "We are here," he pointed at the T-station on the map, and then gestured again, sending the view northwards until it hovered over a large, round crater, "And this, is our destination. One of the fleet's Deep Space Scanning Arrays. The scanning array is in the crater, while the facility that houses the local guards, techs and whatever else, is below it and inside the crater walls. Our employers want to know what's happening in space, so our mission is to either sneak or fight our way in, get to the main control room, and download every shred of data we can find."

 

"We can pick whatever option appeals to us, but we'll only have three hours to complete our goal once we get there. The modifications I've made to the T-Station will generate a powerful sand storm in the area which will block out communications and slow the arrival of reinforcements, as well as trapping all of the men inside of the base so we won't get any unfortunate surprises. But the station can only hold the storm going for three hours. Any longer and we risk causing immense damage to the weather patterns all over the planet."

 

"For getting there we'll be using an All Terrain Buggy. We'll leave it a few miles away behind a dune, approach, scope out the place before the storm gets started and then go in. Once we're done, we'll either go back the way we came or get a lift from Zanzara."

 

"There's no definite number on the amount of hostiles present, but intelligence estimates that there are likely to be forty to fifty people in the base at any one time, civilian personnel like cooks included. Of course since they're all soldiers, I suspect we can expect that any of them is likely to pick up a gun and fight back in a pinch. I can already see a large amount of options that'll make their numerical superiority a non-issue, however."

 

Candiru cleared his throat and shut down the holographic projector with a couple of gestures, "I expect that it'll take us three days to get there if we aren't forced to elude patrols or bogged down by weather, terrain or unforeseen circumstances. I've got camo hazard suits for you all, so no one's going to have to be very good at holding their breath after we abandon the buggy. We don't have any weapons beyond what we're bringing ourselves, though, but we can probably loot or steal some if it becomes utterly necessary."

 

"Now, are there any questions?" He sat down on his own chair, which was made out of an ironing board and an industrial-sized jug of bleach, "I expect there are, so ask them, I don't want to have to explain a detail about the plan in the middle of a firefight where it's pertinent. Oh, and Arodom, you weren't here for this bit: I'm Candiru One, Knocko is Candiru Two, Travis is Candiru Three and you're Candiru Four. While we're out there, we only use our callsigns, we never know who might be listening in."

 

(OOC:

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v98/PurpleXVI/craterA.jpg

 

The crater seen from the side.)

[Evilsincarnation]

"My biggest question is what everyone here is good at. Battle? Computers? Stealth? I use stealth to get the job done, but what about you three, and what weapons profiencies do you guys have? We're going to need a balanced group to take on 40-50 people. By the way, what are your options of getting past them One? I say we keep the environment suits on and place some gas grenades in the ventilation systems. I'm sure I could modify my grappling hook launcher to shoot a grenade, but i don't have any one me. Are there any other ideas?"

[Captain Andy]

"A balanced group to take on 40 or 50 people? Are you implying we should directly take them on? We'd get slaughtered. I believe we should sneak our way in, take out whoever we find in our way and try and find a computer. I could hack into their security and make some changes that could aid us. I'm a pretty good shot with a pistol."

 

Travis stood up. He felt that his makeshift seat would collapse if he wasn't careful. He began to stretch his legs. He turned back to Arodom.

 

"Oh and by the way, do you know what a Candiru is?"

[Stampede]

Knocko smiled to himself at Travis' last question.

 

"I can handle myself in a fight, but I'm not a hero, I got people depending on me back home."

 

He paused for emphasis before glancing at those seated around him.

 

"You can all depend on me to watch your backs, I won't let you down...but I'm not going to kill any soldiers for the sake of it. They're good men, just doing their jobs and I'm not going to be able to face my kids knowing I killed someone elses dad."

[Captain Andy]

Travis nodded his head at Knocko. That last comment made him think different about Knocko. He wasn't just some engineer, he was a real family man. Travis liked that.

 

"And I'll be sure to watch all of your's. Like I said, I believe we need to shut down security and get in and out as stealthily as possible. Going in and making the entire place a graveyard would get us lots of unwanted attention, which, obviously, we don't want. "

 

Travis took his seat again and folded his hands on the table. He cleared his throat and began speaking again.

 

"I know we're taking certain precautions to slow them down and the like, but I still vote in rule of a stealthy approach. One, is there any other notable things about the crater we should be told?"

[PurpleXVI]

"Nothing particularly interesting about the crater itself," said One, "And I agree with stealth, I don't have anyone waiting for me at home, but I'd like to get to go home at the end of this nonetheless. I have to admit that I hadn't quite planned on a non-violent approach," he added hestitantly, "But I think that I can see a way, yes, I think that I can see a way."

 

"I'm a military man by training," he told Arodom, "What I'm good at is shooting things, not getting shot and not getting spotted."

 

He fell silent for a few seconds and seemed to ponder something, then continued, "But here's what I'm thinking: Like most bases here on Silver Rock, it probably has an open ventilation system that sucks in air from outside, purifies it and then feeds it into the base. If we're lucky, we can crawl in that way, temporarily disable the system, which shouldn't arouse any suspicion in a sandstorm, and get into the air ducts. Of course there's always the chance that said ducts are too small, in which case we'll have to reconsider our plan."

 

"Most likely the scanning array computers and base control computers are in the same place. If we sneak into the control room we can knock out or tie up whoever's in there, drag them outside the room, disable the air feed for that section of the base and then finish the job while wearing our hazard suits. Getting out might be a problem in that case, though, by the time we're done, most of the base personnel will probably have gotten suited up, too...."

 

"I'd love to just plain sneak, but that's going to be damnably difficult in a small base. Especially because military installations tend to be utilitarian, no more space than absolutely necessary, narrow corridors and so forth. Few hiding places."

[Evilsincarnation]

"I wasn't implying that should directly take them on. Like I said, I am a man of stealth, but I do think if we coduld incapacitate most of them quickly, like with a gas in the ventalation systems, it would make life much easier. Or, since this is a big compound I'm thinking they are going to have large industrial ventalation ducts, we could just travel through there. I can cover up all the sound we make up there with my belt."

[Captain Andy]

"I'm still not sure if the gas thing would work. It just seems too cliche. It may work in movies, but wouldn't a military project have gas masks or some other way of making themselves immune to the gas? I don't even think any of have any gas grenades."

 

Travis put his head in his hands and blinked a few times.

 

"Maybe we could find a way to turn the security around on them. I know that's just a vague statement, but maybe there is some way we could use it our advantage. I'm not quiet sure. One's plan seems pretty plausible."

 

Travis turned to Knocko, who seemed to pretty quiet during most of this.

 

"You got any ideas, Knocko? What do you think of some of the plans thrown about?"